This Week in Weird

Friday

Jan 25, 2008 at 12:01 AMJan 25, 2008 at 1:16 PM

A roundup of quirky news of the past week, as reported by GateHouse newspapers.

People flock to help injured swan
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. – A swan with a broken right wing managed to get out of a lake and started walking to a parking lot on the other side of busy street last week.
More than 15 calls came in to authorities to catch the bird, by then lurching toward certain doom.
Off-duty Ontario County sheriff’s Deputy Bob Green was driving by and stopped. Canandaigua Police Officer Ryan Allen also responded, as did local resident/wildlife rescuer Dan Malloy.
“I grabbed my leather gloves and a net, and I got down there in a few minutes,” Malloy said. “There was already a big crowd, and officers were trying to catch the swan.”
They managed to round up the bird, and it was taken to a veterinary hospital by city police in a squad car.
Malloy then took the swan to a rehab facility, where it’s on the mend. Malloy said if it heals completely, it will be released into the wild. If it is permanently injured, the bird will go to an appropriate caretaker.
7-year-old takes mom’s car on joy ride
PEORIA, Ill. -- Heading to a gas station last week, Michael Barber caught a glimpse of a strange sight: a vehicle, with no visible driver, maneuvering itself around a store parking lot.
But the car wasn’t possessed by spirits. Instead its motorist, a 7-year-old boy, was simply too short to see over the steering wheel.
No one was injured in the brief joyride, though a light pole was toppled and two parked vehicles damaged.
The Peoria boy later told officers he "just wanted to drive like an adult," according to a police report.
However, Barber said after the trip the boy looked more petrified than proud. "He knew he was in trouble, but he didn’t know what he had done."
Jennifer Arnold, the child’s mother, told officers she left him and his infant brother in the car outside a store with the engine running while she ran into the shop. She left the car on so her children could stay warm.
Less than a minute later, Arnold told police she heard a commotion outside the store.
A witness said the boy backed over a parking block, struck a light pole and drove out of the parking lot. He then backed onto Prospect before stopping and driving south on the roadway. He then turned and re-entered the parking lot, hitting two parked cars before coming to a stop.
Police cited Arnold for driving without insurance and leaving an unattended motor vehicle and then drove her and her and the children home from the wreck.
Man bares all after chase
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- A 44-year-old man showed his rear end Thursday night in downtown Winter Haven.
During a wild chase by a bail agent, Eric Lee Andrews of Winter Haven lost his pants and exposed his rear to a gathering crowd.
Rico Reed is a bail agent for Andrews, who has been in and out of the Polk County Jail on various charges six times since October 2005. Andrews missed a court appearance, so Reed and several of his colleagues were required to bring him in.
When Reed and his colleagues entered Andrews’ apartment, Andrews jumped through a window onto an outside patio. Reed found him in a side room and put him under arrest.
After the arrest, Andrews was able to get his handcuffs in front of him, jumped into the driver's seat of Reed’s vehicle and hit the gas. Reed said he tried to reach in and turn off the ignition, and he ended up in the driver's seat with Andrews. The vehicle soon hit a tree.
Andrews then got out and tried to run, and when the bondsmen grabbed him, his pants came down, officials said.
Gas for $0.00? Sweet!
ROCKFORD, Ill. -- The sign at a gas station made it look like it’s giving away gasoline, but it turned out to be not the case.
A Phillips 66 station listed the price of unleaded gasoline with a car wash at $0.00 a gallon. But that’s because the station had to shut down its automatic car wash today thanks to subzero temperatures, so it’s not selling gas with the wash discount.
Because the station’s sign can’t be shut off entirely, the station manager set the price at zero.
GateHouse News Service

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